Gardening for Old Folks (Adaptative)

[cavemanrich]

not doing raised beds, for now, but raised pots

I also do my growing in raised pots. Well,,, they are not all raised, but are somewhat high. Translates to container growing.
I mostly grow flowers. I do have one container growing cucumbers,, and a few more containers growing sorrel.
The large pots I did in the hügelkultur style. They are slightly less heavy, than if it was soil alone. It still takes a man and a boy to move at the end of the season,, for winter storage. They don't go very far.
I have one hügelkultur raised bed that I set up. It is also for flowers only. Not very tall, but with the wood as filler, made my soil stretch much further.
It is in a low area of the yard, where I always kept my wood pile stored for winter stove fuel. Not much wanted to grow there, including grass, so decided to convert to raised bed. It is doing better. First year, So I will be planting more lilies, that come up every year.
These are not todays pictures. Taken about 2 weeks ago. Things are somewhat bigger now.

The large pots stay where they are. The smaller pots, I do move around to different areas of patio/yard, or wherever a potted plant would look pretty
The hanging ones are there for the complete season.

The last 5 pictures,, I just planted that day. There was a nice sale on these flowers at store,, I just could not hold back

 

[jvls1942]

rainbarrels, my latest project.
the rain goes from the gutters down the spout into barrel no.1 when it gets full, the water goes through the overflow tube into barrel no.2. when no.2 gets full the water goes though an overflow tube and drops into barrel no.3.
no.3 has an open valve connected to a garden hose. the water goes through the hose to a sloped area of the yard where it flows away from the house.
there are spigots on no.2 and no.1 where I can hook up a hose and drain the barrels or water my raised beds of tomatoes..
I am working on a similar system on the other side of the porch.
should have about 200 gallons of water in reserve.

 

[cavemanrich]

rainbarrels, my latest project.

I'm sure you are aware to have screening over any open water source.

 

[R2elk]

The potatoes have gone to seed.

 

[Molpet]

The potatoes have gone to seed.
View attachment 3889776

Mine never set seeds, what kind are they.

 

[R2elk]

Mine never set seeds, what kind are they.

Based on where the plant is, I believe that is where I planted purple potatoes.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

My potatoes didn’t seed at all, I am thinking about digging ( better put, let somebody else dig them) up finally managed to plant the pumpkins into the water barrel

My dahlias are finally in bloom

Wild blackberries are starting to ripen, depending on where they stand they are delicious, we haven’t had any for the last 3 years, it was always so dry they shriveled up before they were ready to eat, this year, because if all the rain, they are finally good enough to harvest

And since they are up high anyway, no need to bend picking them the lower ones usually are peed on by dogs anyway, so I wouldn’t take any of them

 

[R2elk]

Trying a new tomato this year.

Yellow Stuffer

 

[R2elk]

Super Sauce

 

[jvls1942]

we had no rain for two days. so today I made nine stakes for my nine tomato plants. got them all tied up , weeded and trimmed the lower branches off for air circulation.
then I hooked up a hose to barrel no.1 and gave them all a good drink. I drained a half barrel of water. that's all I can get from the gravity feed to the hose. If they weren't raised beds, I could just about drain the barrel.
waiting for the squash seeds to sprout.